Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Six miles and 200 metres of climbing in about three hours, switchbacking east along the crags past Castle Nick, Sycamore Gap and Crag Lough to Housesteads fort, with a farm track back below the escarpment. Start at the Steel Rigg car park, pay-and-display and only around 40 spaces, so on a summer weekend park at The Sill at Once Brewed and walk up the lane. The whole ridge is grazed by sheep and cattle and the National Trust asks for dogs on leads on the Wall itself; there is a sheer drop off the crags on the north side, several ladder stiles a heavy dog cannot climb unaided, and no water until Crag Lough.
Four and three quarter miles in two and a half hours on the quiet side of the Wall, down lanes and field paths to the boundary of the Vindolanda excavations and back along the line of the Stanegate Roman road. Start at The Sill national landscape centre at Once Brewed, where the car park is large, pay-and-display and open all year, with the Twice Brewed Inn next door. Vindolanda is a paid site with its own dog rules so check before you plan to go in; the walk itself crosses sheep pasture the whole way with gates and one ladder stile, and the burn below Codley Gate is the only reliable water.
The car park at the top of the crags, and the start of the best mile of Hadrian's Wall: up over Peel Crags and down to the dip where the sycamore stood until 2023. The national park asks that dogs are kept on leads on the wall paths, which cross grazing land and ground-nesting bird country. Steep steps, drop-offs on the north side and no shade at all.
Four miles and two hours over the best-preserved miles of the Wall, out along Peel Crags and Highshield above Crag Lough to Hotbank and back on the pasture track under the cliffs. It begins at the Steel Rigg car park at the top of the lane from Once Brewed; there are only about 40 spaces and no verge parking, and wardens do enforce it. Leads on throughout for the unfenced crag edge and the grazing sheep, though the lough shore gives a drink; the descent from Hotbank has two ladder stiles and a slabby step a short-legged dog will need a hand with.
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